Writers of Today: Robert Penn Warren

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Walter Kerr interviews Robert Penn Warren.

Each volume of WRITERS OF TODAY is a dialogue between noted literary critic Walter Kerr and one of the best known writers of our time. Produced in the 1950s, these programs provide rare profiles of these men as they discuss contemporary literature and society at the time of their own writing peaks.

Robert Penn Warren focuses on the creative process of writing. He discusses with Kerr the search for Identity which is ubiquitous in his novels and poems as a metaphor for writing itself. The fundamentals of fiction - place, characters, story - are also discussed, but Warren insists that without an innate 'germ,' one cannot simply learn mechanics and become a writer. Asked about his students, Warren says it is too often true that 'they want it quick and easy.'